HTC One E9 might be the M9's new cousin with a 5.5-inch Quad HD screen

Just like last year, HTC is allegedly spinning off the HTC One M9 into a new One E9 variant.

China's TENAA certification center recently revealed that the E9 is a 5.5-inch device (much like the 5-inch One M9). It doesn't have a curved metal back, but rather a flatter-looking body, and according to Upleaks, it supposedly ditched the M9's Snapdragon 810 processor in favour of the 64-bit octa-core MediaTek chip. It also has a super-sharp Quad HD screen, whereas the M9 has a 1080p display.

There might also be two versions of the One E9: a standard version with a 13-megapixel front camera, and a high version with a 4MP UltraPixel cam. It's not clear yet when and where HTC plans to launch the HTC One E9, but the E8, which Pocket-lint described as a stripped-down, plastic-bodied cousin of the M8 during a full review, launched in parts of Asia and in the US last autumn for around £330.

That said, during an interview with Business Insider at the Mobile World Congress, Jason Mackenzie, HTC's President of the Americas, suggested a new product was coming down the pipeline when he teased the following: "We have a huge announcement in middle to late March around extreme differentiation between Samsung and the iPhone. It solves key pain points."

HTC hasn't confirmed if Mackenzie was referring to the E9, so it looks like we'll just have to wait.